Many people in our line of sonic debauchery refer to Motörhead as a metal band even though legendary frontman Lemmy always insisted they played rock n’ roll. Not surprisingly, nobody ever dared to argue the point with Mr. Kilmister (that we know of). Thus, if you’re looking for a metal band cut from the Motörhead cloth it’s best to cast an ear in Witchery’s direction. Born from the ashes of Satanic Slaughter 20 years ago, the Swedish quintet originally consisting of members from The Haunted, Arch Enemy and Seance gained a faithful cult following from the get-go with their 1998 debut, Restless And Dead. During a BW&BK interview in 1999 for the band’s Witchburner EP, guitarist Patrik Jensen (The Haunted) put forth Witchery’s plan of adopting a ’70s-era KISS approach and releasing at least an album a year, and with Symphony For The Devil hitting the shelves in 2001 it seemed they might succeed. Unfortunately, real life and other band commitents managed to scuttle those plans, leaving Witchery to assemble only as time permitted, yielding only three albums in 10 years. In fact, their new record, In His Infernal Majesty’s Service, comes a whopping six years after their last outing, Witchkrieg.

“You know what they say; as you grow older time moves faster, ” says Jensen. “It doesn’t seem like it’s been six years but then I look at the calendar and it’s ‘Oh my God, we’re celebrating 20 years of Witchery, we need to make an album…’ (laughs).”

“But that’s the problem we’ve had since 2003 because that’s around about when Angela (Gossow) joined Arch Enemy and things started to go really well for them,” he continues, referring to bassist Sharlee D’Angelo’s top priority and the resulting space between Witchery albums. “The Haunted took off around that time, and I think that’s when Martin (Axenrot / drums) joined Opeth. We were really active between 1997 to 2003 and then things got difficult for us because there were so many conflicting schedules. It’s crazy. We discovered that it was just as hard to get this album out as any other year we’ve done an album because it’s hard to get everyone together. That’s why Martin decided to gracefully bow out; he didn’t want to make it a problem for Witchery to continue releasing albums. The way he put it, ‘It’s not like I don’t have a band I’m going to tour the world with…’ (laughs). We love the guy and we’re still friends, so there’s no animosity. Something had to change and he offered his place up; we found Chris (Barkensjö) to play drums and he’s not as busy as Martin so it’s easier to get rehearsals going. On top of that, Martin was a very sophisticated and tasteful player even before he joined Opeth, whereas I’m more of a Ramones / early Motörhead kind of player. Chris is the same way; he sounds like our first drummer, so having him in the band brought back that old Witchery feeling we had on Restless And Dead. Not only could we get back to rehearsing, we kind of got our old sound back.” Continue Reading

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